भवान्भगवतो नित्यं सम्मतः सानुगस्य ह ।
यस्य ज्ञानोपदेशाय मादिशद्भगवान्व्रजन् ॥२१॥

bhavÄn bhagavato nityaá¹
sammataḥ sÄnugasya ha
yasya jñÄnopadeÅ›Äya
mÄdiÅ›ad bhagavÄn vrajan

 bhavÄn - your good self; bhagavataḥ - of the Personality of Godhead; nityam - eternal; sammataḥ - recognized; sa-anugasya - one of the associates; ha - have been; yasya - of whom; jñÄna - knowledge; upadeÅ›Äya - for instructing;  - unto me; ÄdiÅ›at - so ordered; bhagavÄn - the Personality of Godhead; vrajan - while returning to His abode.


Text

Your good self is one of the eternal associates of the Supreme Personality of Godhead for whose sake the Lord, while going back to His abode, left instructions with me.

Purport

YamarÄja, the great controller of life after death, decides the living entities’ destinies in their next lives. He is surely among the most confidential representatives of the Lord. Such confidential posts are offered to great devotees of the Lord who are as good as His eternal associates in the spiritual sky. And because Vidura happened to be among them, the Lord, while returning to Vaikuṇṭha, left instructions for Vidura with Maitreya Muni. Generally the eternal associates of the Lord in the spiritual sky do not come to the material world. Sometimes they come, however, by the order of the Lord — not to hold any administrative post, but to associate with the Lord in person or to propagate the message of God in human society. Such empowered representatives are called Å›aktyÄveÅ›a-avatÄras, or incarnations invested with transcendental power of attorney.